With contaminated drinking water surfacing in Shuyang County, East China's Jiangsu Province, some 200,000 local residents could not get safe water from their taps for more than 40 hours.

This is the second incident of its kind in a month in the same province, one of the richest in the country. It is beyond doubt that the Yihe River, the source of the county's drinking water, was wantonly polluted although investigators are yet to determine the cause.

The conclusion by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) that water pollution has reached the point of posing a serious threat to the normal life of residents is no exaggeration. The repeated contamination of drinking water sends a somber message.

Local governments' apathy and inaction toward the increasingly hazardous water pollution can well be considered life-threatening political pollution. Local leaders' business-as-usual all too often includes giving approval to the operation of polluting firms.

A lake or waterway is not polluted in a day or a month to the degree seen in the ongoing string of water contamination crises.

Dangerous drinking water is too heavy a price to pay for rapid economic growth. Local government leaders must understand that environmental protection is their responsibility.

Premier Wen Jiabao stressed at a conference last week that pollution control and treatment in the country's major lakes must be at the top of local governments' agendas. This shows the resolve of the central government in environmental protection.

Yet, effective mechanisms backed up by harsh punishment are yet to be put in place to stop unsafe economic development.

Criminal penalties need to be introduced for serious water contamination. Local officials whose inaction or venal decisions have caused the crises deserve prison terms.

SEPA Deputy Director Pan Yue made the point that pollution cannot be stopped unless local government leaders are held legally accountable for the local environment. The repeated drinking water contamination incidents have already brought home the urgency of pollution control.

(China Daily 07/05/2007 page10)